She balls the piece of paper up and tosses it into the wastebasket under the desk before her eyes scan the room one last time for any clues as to where I am or where I could have gone.
Her eyes flit up to the ceiling, and I almost think she might have found me. She starts talking, and I realize she’s found the security camera in the corner so she can look into my eyes as she speaks.
“I don’t owe you anything, Langston Pearce. And you won’t be demanding anything of me in four days. You won’t be taking me. You don’t own me. You will take nothing from me.”
She licks her red lips, knowing that her lips are my favorite thing about her.
How I’ve wanted to kiss her lips. There have been so many opportunities throughout my life where I could have kissed her, but something always held me back. I’ve never tasted them—never tasted the poisonous, tempting red apple lips.
She knows her seduction won’t work on me. And yet, she still does it, driving me mad.
“I gave you a chance to end this war, to talk face to face. You ran, hid. I’m usually the hunter, the seeker. And you follow me in order to kill. But not this time. This time, I’m going to hide, and you’ll have to do the hunting.
“And if all these years of hunting have taught me one thing, it’s that I know how to hide better than anyone. You’ll never find me unless I want to be found. You aren’t going to win, Langston. So surrender, and maybe I’ll let you live.”
With that, she walks out. Her fighting words hit me in the chest as hard as a bullet.
Liesel thinks she can hide.
She thinks she has power.
She has no idea of the truth.
It’s impossible to hide from someone whose heart you stole when we were five. That piece of me she stole calls out to me no matter where she goes. I won’t have to hunt her to find her; I just have to follow the beacon, the signal that she involuntarily sends to me.
She can’t hide any more than I can. And in four days she’ll be mine. I just don’t know what I’m going to do with her when I claim her.
11
Liesel
My plan didn’t work. Of course, Langston, king of security, saw me coming on the cameras. I knew he would see me the second I walked into the hotel. Hotels are full of cameras, which makes it impossible to sneak up on Langston. He can hack into any system. He sees everything.
I shiver at that thought, of all the things he’s seen. Things he’s seen and done nothing about.
Four days.
That’s how long I have until he comes after me to extract a debt he thinks I owe him. I still don’t know why he thinks I owe him for killing one man for me. He’s killed dozens of men for me when we were younger. Before…
Before he tore my secrets from my grip.
He won’t let me find him before the four days are up.
But I’m not going to let him take me in four days. I’d rather hide the rest of my life than let Langston win.
I’m not going to have to hide the rest of my life, though—just for four more days.
If I can stay hidden, away from Langston’s reach for four days, then I win. He may still come for me. He still may come to collect his debt after four days, but he will have lost. He will lose his power, his upper hand.
He knows that, that’s why the timing is so important to him. He wants complete control over me, he always has. He’s been trying to boss me around since we were ten.
I start my Porsche and head back to my apartment to think in the comfort of my own home. I blast the radio as I drive, trying not to think about Langston, the best way for my ideas to flow.
The problem with Langston being able to see everything is that I can’t write anything down. I can’t look anything up on my computer. I can’t make plans except in my head.
When I get to my condo, I pour myself a glass of scotch while avoiding looking up at the security camera. I refuse to talk to Langston anymore if he’s too much of a coward to show his face. I won’t let him into my mind either. From now on, he only gets to see what I want him to see. And he sure as hell won’t be getting another glimpse of my body.
I swirl the liquid in my glass as I contemplate my choices. I can hide in plain sight or hide at the ends of the earth. Anything less means he will win—he’ll find me.